rove312

Is anything known about whether VIPs with the NW dine program will keep that status with DL? If it makes a difference whether one is already in the DL program, I am, with just enough dines to get a couple of their promotional bonuses.

ambyr

For what it's worth, I wrote to RN asking this question and got back this lovely, detailed response:

Possibly a phone call to their customer service line would produce a less cryptic answer. I haven't tried it yet.

rove312

Today I see word on the site that the NW dining program will merge into DL's on Nov. 8. They say that as of now, miles earned with a NW-registered card will go directly to SkyMiles. FAQ: http://nwa.rewardsnetwork.com/promo.htm?id=16400002

I don't see specifics about maintaining status-- one could infer that top status will keep up, but I don't know-- or what happens if one is already a member of both dining programs. I could guess that the DL login will prevail, but does that mean so will the lower status? Maybe I have an incentive to get the UA bonuses, since that's become my top mileage program after burning my NW/DL miles.

sdsearch

I reread it closely, and I do see some confusing suggestion of what might happen.

In a section about "should I sign up for Skymiles Dining now", it says not to, because then you'll end up with two accounts at Shymiles Dining, the one you just signed up for, and the one created automatically through the merger.

That implies that if you've had a Symiles Dining account already for years, the same thing might happen.

And if you've had a Skymiles Dining account for years, but it has no status, and you have a Skymiles Dining account merged from Dining For Miles that has status, you'll have to use your new accoutn (with your Dining For Miles login and password) to use Skymiles Dining at max earnings.

OTOH, I can just see the confusion if they don't link accounts and allow you to continue to have two. When you call in to report a missing dine, they ask for your FFN, and that'll then be one FFN linked to two accounts???

I can also see that they might send targeted emails to people based on their status, and then have nothing in the email to indicate whether it's your old SkyMiles Dining account or the new SkyMiles dining account that was targeted! (Analogous to those stupid credit card companies which send you letters in the mail about "your credit card" without identify which of the two or more cards you have with them they're talking about. Some creidt card companies list the last 4 digits of the card the mailing is reltaed to, but some bizarrely don't, I guess thinking no one has more than one card with us???)

rove312

There's an e-mail today about the impending merger of programs, including "Your Dining For Miles account information, including your member status and account preferences, will become part of the SkyMiles Dining program on November 8th." sdsearch is probably on target on what will happen to those already with a DL account.

sdsearch

I got extra frustrated by getting that email which still totally ignored the question of what happens if you already have both DL and NW dining accounts, so I called them (at the NW dining number). The rep said that my accounts would be merged, and that if either had VIP status that I'd end up VIP in the merged account. (In my case, DL has only a 1000 mile bonus posted this year and no dines, while NW has enough dines to get me to VIP status plus several bonuses.) They also said my DL username would "have priority" (implying that it's the one that would survive).

Of course, I don't have this in writing from them, and we all know that the info we get on the phone is not always corect. So we'll still have to see.

Also, since it didn't apply to me, I didn't ask what would happen if neither account had VIP but the combination of the number of dines this year in both accounts qualified you for VIP (eg, 7 dines this year in each of the two programs).

I'll leave it to others to experiiment with NW dines this week which would post Pending before the merge but be Paid after the merge. I'm doing all AS right now since they're the only ones who gave me a (repeatable) threshold bonus for this month (and last).

sdsearch

Update to my post directly above:

So a week later all that's happened is they now have the correct DL number on my former NW account. But my registration at the former DL account for the latest bonus (500 for every $50 cumulative) did not transfer to my former NW account, the earnings history for the two accounts is still separate, and I only have VIP status for next year in one account.

So after reregistering for the bonus, I now have an account at SkyMiles dining which I can actually use (the former NW one). But I still have to look at two accounts if I want to look at my dining history...

sdsearch

Yet another update:

Another week, and a little bit of progress, but at least another phone call needed.

I logged into my former NWA account yesterday, and found that it no longer had any credit cards in it. Then I logged inot my oriignal Delta account (which last week had no credit cards in it), and found they had moved all my credit cards from the former NWA account to the original Delta account. But my request had been for a total merger, and yet nothing else (not VIP requal count, no history) had been merged.

I called again, focusing just on requal count (which was saying 11 dines needed to requal over at the original Delta login but requalified already at the former NWA login), and it took several minutes and raising it (behind the scenes) to a supervisor, but then the rep came back "done".

I then logged back into my original Delta login and it didn't look "done", but knowing how these things can work, I decided to give it a day, and this morning I indeed no longer need any more dines to requalify at my original Delta login.

My Delta login is still missing my NWA login's dining history, though. Anyone
gotten their dining histories successfully merged yet?